A self-help blog from Molly Merson, Berkeley Therapist. Informed by psychoanalytic, intersubjective, social justice, and relational theories about human experiences, relationships, and the ways we move through the world. Topics include racism, depression, eating disorders, body image, growing up, anxiety, inner critic, and grief and loss. Reading this blog does not imply a therapeutic relationship with me.

Last week, I wrote an article for Medium called "How to be a therapist when the world is on fire." It is a small window into the way I work as a therapist, and the urgency of connectedness and redefining the "container" when the world is on fire. I mean this both as a metaphor and, particularly in the current state of our country and planet, quite literally.

We are all impacted, albeit in different ways, by what is happening in our communities. While therapists by necessity and design are often one layer removed from our patients' pain and experience, when we are both impacted by environmental tragedies that layer can become thin and transparent. There is important work to be done in this realm, if we can manage to continue to think clinically.

The world is on fire around us. None of us are spared completely, but some of us are in more pain and devastation than others. In some cases we just can’t do therapy right now because the immediate need to save your physical body is too great. In some cases, we can. When the walls are burning, this is when we are forced to redefine the container. - Molly Merson, MFT How to be a therapist when the world is on fire